From a sole teacher to New Zealand’s largest school, Going the Distance tells the 100-year story of how a correspondence scheme, a “doubtful experiment” became the Department of Education’s Correspondence School and later through a series of remarkable transformations - Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, which now enrols more than 25,000 students a year and is the country’s largest Māori school. The Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, has described Te Kura’s work with the country’s most vulnerable students as one of the great untold stories of the New Zealand education system. Back in 1922, the first teacher, Miss Janet MacKenzie, was expecting to enrol about 25 “backblocks”students, but such was the clamour for education that the numbers rocketed with 100 on the roll by the time lessons began. By the end of the year, there were almost 350 pupils, with every lesson, every correction, every letter to pupil and parent handwritten by the sole teacher. The book follows the school’s history through the appointments of several headmasters, all of whom were determined that the pupils should have a “real school”. They held exhibitions of students work (attended by many dignitaries of the day), formed a multitude of clubs, established a museum, built an extensive library, sent out teachers into isolated districts. These visiting teacher reached their remote pupils through an astonishing range of transport, including by dinghy, horseback and on gun carriers. Residential schools were also held every year where the “corrie kids” would spend a month with their schoolmates, who they got to know through the pages of their annual magazine, the Postman. A lot of the story is related by the pupils themselves in the prose and verse they contributed to the Postman, from 1928 to 2002. There are also many comments and descriptions of the school through annual reports, in speeches by Governors General, Prime Ministers from Michael Joseph Savage to David Lange, as well as Ministers of Education, and Government agencies. In the book’s foreword, the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, a former Te Kura student herself, says Going the Distance is not only a history of the school and the New Zealand education, but is also the story of how New Zealanders lived in times past, what they thought about, what was important to them, and even what they laughed about. And she says it tells how Te Kura has been called on in times of national crises, such as the devastating polio epidemics of the 1940s right up to providing its expertise in online learning during the COVID-19 global pandemic. For its first 60 years, the school was truly a national icon – a model of innovative educational programmes, a national broadcaster of educational programmes, and a provider of lessons to a broad range of students from early childhood to adults. However, the school’s fortunes begin to change dramatically in the 1980s. Its traditional base of remote children declined, and a new student profile began to dominate - students, alienated, often expelled, from their own school, often Māori, and most problematically, a type of student least suited to learn on their own through distance education. The school said it had been given a major social problem by government agencies without the additional resourcing needed to do the job, and was then criticised publicly by other branches of the government for failing to achieve the impossible. For many years the school struggled to find a solution, and it wasn’t until the appointment of the current CE Mike Hollings that the school – now Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu – has been able to tackle “the impossible”. In the words of the latest ERO report on Te Kura (December 2021), it has raised the achievement of the most vulnerable and “at risk” ākonga (student) and at a time when increasing numbers of rangatahi (young people) are falling out of the education system. Te Kura has been part of the education system in Aotearoa New Zealand for 100 years. Just as it was crucial in its early years, providing lessons to those unable to access schooling, today it is providing the opportunity to tens of thousands of students who would otherwise miss out on an education. Te Kura is just as relevant – and needed – all these years later.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 252

Dimensions: 210 x 298 mm

Publication Date: 30-09-2022

The Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti) is the founding document of our national identity. Traditionally understood as conveying full sovereignty to the Crown, today it is viewed as creating some form of co-sovereign partnership. Which is correct? If we are to ‘Honour the Treaty,’ we must first understand it. To promote an incorrect reading is to dishonour the Treaty. To write the wrong interpretation into a national Constitution would be an enduring mistake. This book examines the Treaty in its historical context relative to the Declaration of Independence. It assesses the contextual use of the terms rangatiratanga and kāwanatanga in those documents, reviews the idealism and intent of the Treaty of Waitangi, reflects on how it was understood in 1840, and considers how and why it fell short in practical application. Having reviewed the impact of colonial policies, the book then presents an evidence-based challenge to modern ideas of co-sovereignty and partnership. Finally, it asks how we can honour the Treaty going forward in the way its signatories intended, as different cultures comprising one nation.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 214

Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm

Publication Date: 07-11-2022

Following on from “In A Country Churchyard” and “In A Southern Churchyard” is the new limited edition “In a South Island Churchyard” This collection of 54 South Island churches is explored through the pen and ink drawings of Rodney Wells and through the historical text accompanying each drawing by Tessa Ward.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 120

Dimensions: 276 x 225 mm

Publication Date: 01-05-2022

In this new book published by the Museum of Transport and Technology Society, you will learn of the incredible saga and near failures that the Baldwin Steam Tram No100 endured on its travels from Philadelphia, USA to New Zealand via Australia. This certainly is a Wonderful Story of the tram's trial, tribulations and successes over 131 years. For some 40 years, the tram successfully served the communities of Sydney, Rockdale and Wanganui. After spending another 30 years either in storage or awaiting the scrappers torch, in 1958 it was purchased by two tramway volunteers who donated it to the Old Time Transport Preservation League (OTTPL). The OTTPL who arranged for the tram's storage in Auckland, was one of the forerunners of Auckland's Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT). Meticulous record keeping by people who have been involved in its life, particularly tramway historians and specialist museum restoration volunteers, has enabled this book to be written. It follows the tram's life in detail, from its construction in 1891, to the Western Springs Tramway, some 131 years later, where it now happily runs.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 80

Dimensions: 210 x 250 mm

Publication Date: 01-08-2022

A ‘mostly true’ story ripped from the pages of New Zealand’s dark history Based on the notorious Maungatapu Murders of 1866, this action-packed historical novel is a gripping tale of murder and greed. Fifteen-year-old Henry Appleton lives on an isolated farm in Nelson, New Zealand. He devours dime novels about American cowboys and dreams of having his own rifle and becoming a gunslinger like Wild Bill Hickok. But his daydreaming becomes a terrifying reality when two strangers ride into town: the physician Zephaniah Smith, who is hunting down his wife’s killer ... and the ruthless highwayman Richard Burgess who plans to rob a bank with his gang. Over the next three days, Henry is threatened, kidnapped, shot and left for dead in a riverbed. When the gang murders a group of travellers from the goldfields, the injured Henry is determined to bring them to justice. • A rip-roaring New Zealand adventure story for readers 11+ • Inspired by the infamous Maungatapu Murders in Nelson, 1866 • More than 40 illustrations and historical photographs. • Includes resources for pupils studying the new NZ history curriculum • Story originated in author’s award-winning historical re-enactment series Epitaph

Bind: paperback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 133 x 203 mm

Publication Date: 26-10-2022

In 1951, an 18-year-old Kiwi lad named Tony Armit decided to build a 28-foot wooden yacht. Three years later, he christened her Marco Polo, then with a former school rugby mate, Brian ‘Tig’ Loe, set sail from Auckland on an epic voyage... and whatever adventure may await. In the process, Tony and Tig became the first New Zealanders to circumnavigate the globe. Tony always intended to write a book, and now – about 70 years later – he has, telling the story here for the first time in full – a vital addition to New Zealand’s proud sailing heritage. Through near disaster, good fortune, storm and calm, it's a yarn full of humour, drama, can-do Kiwism, romance and adventure, as Tig, Tony and Marco experience the world as it was in the 1950s. First heading to Australia, then across the Indian Ocean to South Africa, round the Cape, across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, North America, the Panama Canal, the Galápagos, the Pacific Islands – and points between – encountering a host of colourful and unique characters along the way. A must-read for lovers of sailing and true-life adventure, and a perfect book for the boat or bach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUtwHyz9Otc

Bind: paperback

Pages: 592

Dimensions: 148 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 21-10-2022

Aotearoa New Zealand is renowned among biologists worldwide for spectacular ecological restoration work over the last 50 years, through advances in pest eradication and native species translocation. This book documents the development of these world-leading technologies. It uses examples from throughout the country, but has a special focus on one island group – the Mercury islands off Coromandel, of which Ahuahu (Great Mercury Island) is the largest. The story is told through the eyes of pioneer conservation biologist David Towns, who was there from the start. It is a story of triumphs and setbacks, of opportunity and innovation, of teamwork and emerging bicultural collaboration. Today, all seven islands of the Mercury group are free of mammalian pests, providing a haven to native plants and animals. This book is the story of how that was made possible.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 384

Dimensions: 210 x 280 x 15 mm

Publication Date: 16-01-2023

From author Jonathan Shingleton, who brought us Alpine Thunder, the renowned book on the KB class, Jonathan brings us a well-researched and interesting account of NZR’s rebuilt three-cylinder G class. In attempt to make something useful of the ill-fated Garratts, NZR used the chassis of the three Garratt articulated locomotives to build six conventional G class locomotives. In theory, these should have been very handy motive power for the South Island, but the engineering constrictions imposed by the loading gauge on the new design plus the inherent weaknesses transferred from the Garratt engine units to the rebuilt engines, all conspired to make them problematic and unreliable. Jonathan delves into the detail of how NZR attempted to correct the issues and improve the design, plus how the crews worked these unique three-cylinder engines. This is a fascinating read.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 142

Dimensions: 210 x 296 mm

Publication Date: 20-06-2023

More than 350 men were imprisoned in New Zealand during World War I for sedition or resisting military service. Among them were numerous Canterbury pacifists, motivated to resist the tide of militarism and imperialism that was sweeping the world. I Don't Believe In Murder is an alternative history of the years before, during and after New Zealand's involvement in World War I. It depicts the strong response made by Canterbury's labour, socialist and women's movements to pre-war compulsory military training and wartime conscription. Most importantly, it tells the stories of the people who made Christchurch the leading city in the peace movement, and of the young men who refused to fight, enduring imprisonment, hardships and loss of civil rights - all determined to follow their consciences and take a religious, humanitarian or political stand against war. Drawing on archives, newspapers and family collections, this is a crucial narrative for understanding the moral dilemmas posed by a country's participation in armed conflict.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 328

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 01-07-2023

THE STORY BEHIND THE MAN WHO MAPPED THE WORLD The name Captain James Cook is one of the most recognisable in Australian history - an almost mythic figure who is often discussed, celebrated, reviled and debated. But who was the real James Cook? This Yorkshire farm boy would go on to become the foremost mariner, navigator and cartographer of his era, and to personally map a third of the globe. His great voyages of discovery were incredible feats of seamanship and navigation. Leading a crew of men into uncharted territories, Cook would face the best and worst of humanity as he took himself and his crew to the edge of the known world - and beyond. With his masterful storytelling talent, Peter FitzSimons brings James Cook to life. Focusing on his most iconic expedition, the voyage of the Endeavour, where Cook first set foot on Australian and New Zealand soil, FitzSimons contrasts Cook against another figure who looms large in Australasian history: Joseph Banks, the aristocratic botanist. As they left England, Banks, a rich, famous playboy, was everything that Cook was not. The voyage tested Cook's character and would help define his legacy. Now, 240 years after James Cook's death, FitzSimons reveals what kind of man James was at heart. His strengths, his weaknesses, his passions and pursuits, failures and successes. JAMES COOK reveals the man behind the myth.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 492

Dimensions: 156 x 234 mm

Publication Date: 31-03-2023